Ritek Ships World's First 16X DVD+R DL

Ritek will will become the first company to launch DVD+R DL 16X optical media.

The DVD+RW Alliance released the specifications for 12x/16x DVD+R DL recording last April.

The new v1.2 standard covers the 12x and the 16x burning speed for DVD+R DL media, a significant upgrade to the currently supported speed of 8x. In addition, the DVD Forum approved the 10x and 12x DVD-R DL recording standards last year.

Apart from having the advantages of large capacity of 8.5GB and the convenience of not having to change sides during the burning process, at a writing speed at 16X, it will only take 10 minutes to write 8.5GB of data on the new 16x DVD+R DL discs. This is equivalent to 4 hours of high-resolution DVD image; 16 hours of VHS quality image or 120 hours of MP3 music.

The Taiwanese company did not clarify when the new discs will be available in the retail market. Currently, Japanese optical disc pioneer Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) is close to the release of the first samples of DVD-R DL 12X, while the DVD+R DL 16x samples with the MKM MID are not ready yet.

The DVD R DL media are expected to become mainstream with the introduction of new DVD burners from companies such as Samsung and Pioneer.

Samsung is already offering the SH-203D series of DVD burners, which is capable of writing at 12x/16x on DVD-R/+R DL discs, at least at specs. Samsung is currently shipping the specific drive with firmware vSB00, which cannot burn the existing 8x DVD R DL media at speeds higher than 10x (Z-CLV). The upcoming firmware vSB01 is expected to add support for faster DVD R DL burning.

Ritek at CES
In related news, Ritek previewed its next generation storage media as they will be showcased at the CES--Dec. 20, 2007, Las vegas.

The company said that it aimed to take the lead in the next generation storage media with its Blu-ray media and Solid State Disks.

Ritek has been the among the first companies to receive various laboratory grade certifications for Blu-ray discs to adopt mass production technology and capacity for Blu-ray and HD DVD optical discs. Ritek land level A laboratory certification for 4x Blu-ray Discs in 2007.

As for its HD DVD disc production, Toshiba, the creator of the HD DVD format, has given Ritek full recognition for its technology and product quality.

At CES, discs samples on exhibition will include single-write BD-R 25GB, rewritable BD-RE 25GB or HD DVD media.

In fact, RITEK will also showcase the new RIDATA memory cards, planned to come in two different series of 'Supreme' and 'Lightning'.

RIDATA SMART CompactFlash Card, the first of its kind in the industry, will also be revealed at the 2008 CES. It features innovative functionalities such as Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology for users to monitor the status of CF card at all time. The card is capable of providing notifications to users in real time to protect vital information and data. Another selling point of RIDATA Smart CompactFlash Card is its lower power consumption in standby mode so that users can get more battery time out of their digital cameras.

Ritek's s RIDATA Yego EZDrive is another product that is poised to become the company's most popular merchandize. The product is a flash drive with USB Hub functionalities and it is designed to solve the common problem of insufficient USB ports on users' PCs.

In addition, the most anticipated RITEK product of the year V RITEK SSD will also be shown at the 2008 CES. Similar to other SSD, RITEK SSD has various advantages of low power consumption, lightweight, rapid processing speed and anti-shock features. It comes in two different sizes of 1.8" and 2.5" with a 128GB of memory. RITEK SSD boasts a random access speed of up to 110MB/s (Ultra S) and a write speed up to 70MB/s (Ultra-S).